Trapped
by CBREL
Summary: Phineas and Ferb receive a chilling transmission from Meap, sending them into a whirlwind of an adventure as a mysterious enemy seeks them out, and everyone they care for. NO OC's. May be some super minor Phinabella, but mostly friend-shipping. Please review!
1. Chapter 1

**TRAPPED Chapter 1  
**

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I've had this story in my head for ages now, and I'm having Writer's Block for many of my other stories. So this is what you guys get. :P Definitely a long story-arch for this one. This Chapter is pretty short, but Chapter 2 is nearly done, so I expect to have that done by tomorrow.

Please enjoy! And leave reviews, because I absolutely love them! :D

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The flame-emblazoned ship zooming through the inky void of space wasn't on any schedule today. Inside, an adorable little alien with a rather peculiar mustache quietly snored away. He had set the ship for autopilot, destined for a resort planet a few systems away. He had deserved the break, considering how many hours he was putting into his job.

Meap opened his eyes blearily to the sound of the ship's calm notification system. A beep the volume of a buzzing bee brought him to his senses. He sat up straight and looked over his controls.

_Unidentified object in nearing proximity: 750 meters_

On the radar it showed nothing but a rather small dot, sitting in the expanse of space. Meap knew better than to suspect the least or worst. He sped up his engines and squinted into the space ahead, only a mere curiosity moving him forward.

_Unidentified object in nearing proximity: 650 meters_

_400 meters_

_200 meters_

_100 meters_

_50 meters__  
_  
Meap was going terribly slow now, looking around confusedly. If his radar was correct, the object was still sitting, unmoving.

_25 meters  
_  
His eyes caught something in the distance. It wasn't just space rock, whatever it was.

_20 meters_.

Is that...?

_15 meters  
_  
It looked...  
_Human?_  
With a metallic body, though. The red dwarf star of their current galaxy reflected the light brilliantly. How did he not see it before...?

Seeing it now, it looked more like an art project rather than any form of living or robotic creature. The metal... and possibly what looked like glass twisted and bent and patched together in a horribly messy manner, somehow all coming together to form what would be a very thin, tall, scarecrows figure.

Something so oddly human looking shouldn't be so far away from the Milky Way galaxy. Something wasn't right. Whatever it was, it was making zero effort at communication. He supposed it wasn't alive, or it's energy drain died out.

"Computer, please-"

He could have sworn it moved, but it could have just been the way the  
light shined over it.

"...Open up communications. Milky Way Galaxy, Earth, Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletch-"

It...Smiled?

Was it laughing? Not that he could hear it.

Suddenly its arms uncurled into winding metal and wires, propelling them out toward the windshield, all in a matter of seconds.

A horrible sucking sound was the last thing he heard. Its smiling face was the last thing he saw.

* * *

Phineas stared at the screen before him, hugging his knees involuntarily, half beneath the covers of his bed. He had gotten the call from Meap only moments ago. Only three seconds later and the screen was black again.

What did he just see?

He pressed a button on the side of his bed stand, and the retractable screen folded away beneath it neatly. He fell back on to his pillow again and sorted out what the transmission meant. He'd wake up Ferb the moment he could grasp a good description of the visual.

There was Meap. Just a flash of Meap- looking shocked- followed by an incredibly overwhelming whooshing sound and a annoyingly confusing mesh of static. Considering the extremely high chance that Meap was traveling between planets, a whooshing sound would not be a good thing to hear. It usually meant a leak in oxygen.

A voice in the back of Phineas' head was telling him that he might have just seen Meap's last moments.

The oblivious and positive part of him decided to drown that annoying voice out.

He sat up again and dropped his feet to the floor, sitting on the side of his raft to look at a sleeping Ferb.

"Ferb?" Phineas whispered. He didn't feel good about waking up his brother at such a late hour, but he'd feel worse if he woke anyone else up. Could this wait until morning? No, Ferb would prefer to know right away.

Phineas stood up and suddenly felt shaky. He was sleepy, but what was really making him unbalanced was the adrenaline rushing through him. He walked his way through the dark of the room to the sleeping Ferb.

"Feeeeerb," Phineas whispered. Ferb rolled on to his back and squinted his eyes open.

"Meap just called."

Ferb was full attention now, sitting up in his bed, eyes focused on Phineas. The orange-haired boy continued. "It only lasted three seconds though. I can't really tell what happened."

Ferb crawled out of bed, walking slowly across the room to Phineas' bedside table. He opened up the electrical panel beneath the hidden door of the wood, messing with the wiring. Phineas knew what he was doing; going into it's data to recover the transmission. He could have done it himself, now that he thought of it. Nevertheless, the screen retracted again, and Ferb looked toward it. Phineas stood next to Ferb.

There was Meap, preparing to speak, then looking up in shock. A shattering and whooshing sound came from off screen. Then the screen went black.

Ferb was clutching the wires he was still holding rather tight. His face was still blank, except that he looked a bit confused. Phineas didn't blame him.

Ferb tapped the wires together, sparking. The video replayed. He replayed it again. And again. And again. After a few times of this, he fiddled with more wires, eventually finding a way to pause and slow it down frame by frame.

They watched it frame by frame. It worried Phineas even more that Ferb was taking this so seriously. It meant that they were both coming to the same conclusions.

"There," Ferb said. He had paused it. Phineas awoke from his stupor to look more carefully at the screen.

Ferb was pointing to a mesh of metal twisting into the view of the screen, resembling a thin, spider like hand.


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHORS NOTE:** Hey, lookit that! I'm actually updating! :D

I'm having fun with this one, that's for sure. In this chapter it's basically just filled with set-up dialogue and lots of Baljeet and Buford. And some Isabella, of course. The gangs all here!

_Foreshadowing?_ What's that? I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I have NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS, and definitely did not add extremely subtle to the point of it might-not-even-being foreshadowing bits of it in this chapter.

*Cough*

Enjoy!

And pleeeeaaase review!

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**TRAPPED**

Chapter 2

"Buford, what on Earth is _that_?" Baljeet whined, hiding his suspicious, cringing expression in his scarf; half to keep himself warm from the cold of the winter season, and half to shield his face from whatever could end up inflicting him _pain_ from the colorful package Buford held in his hands.

The taller boy went a slightly darker shade of pink that Baljeet assumed didn't have anything to do with a sudden change in the weather. "Aren't _you_ supposed ta be the one with the brain? What's it _look_ like, Sherly?" He shoved it into Baljeet's stomach before he could try and protest. The smaller boy hugged it to his abdomen painfully.

Buford turned to look down the road for the bus, stuffing his gloved hands in his pockets grumpily. "And don't expect anything big. My mum made me buy presents for practically everyone."

Baljeet huffed before looking down at it, interest piqued. It was a 4x4 regular box with blue, neatly wrapped Christmas paper. A white ribbon tied it all together with a bow. He slowly began pulling at the loose part of the ribbon-

"Wh-_stop_! Ya can't open it until Christmas!" Buford yelled, snatching it back up hastily.

He didn't expect for Baljeet to try and grab it back so quickly. "Whoa!" he gasped, holding the present over his head before the smaller boy could nab it. Suddenly the nerdy boy was being swift, pulling his backpack off and swinging it at the package to make up for the height difference. It worked, and the present went flying through the air.

"_Haha_!" Baljeet cheered victoriously, running after it. Buford pushed the boy down and jumped clean over him leapfrog style, grabbing the present midair before falling face first into the snow.

Baljeet couldn't help but laugh, running over as Buford pulled himself up dizzily, and pelting him with a snowball just for the sake of it. "Give...me...my...present, _Buford_!" he said, laughing and throwing random snowballs. Buford grinned and put the present behind him, using his hands to shovel snow and send it at his friend.

A bus horn exploded their eardrums, and they turned to see Phineas, Isabella, and Ferb waving at them from the windows to hurry, all dressed in winter attire.

As they ran, Buford pushed it back into Baljeet's arms. "Just messin' with ya! It's got a lock on it!"

"_Buford_!" Baljeet exclaimed, as Buford climbed the steps to the bus, grinning. "You made me put up all that effort?"

Buford just laughed. "It was worth it," he said.

They made their way to the seat in front of Phineas and Ferb. Isabella was sitting in the seats opposite them, looking at Buford and Baljeet pitifully. "You guys know that you're going to be soaked for the rest of the day, right?" she said. Baljeet groaned and Buford shrugged, rummaging through his backpack.

He pulled out more brightly colored presents; red and green ones for Phineas and Ferb, who took them delightedly, and pink for Isabella, who squealed in excitement.

"Don't try openin' them early like _Jeet_ did though!" Buford said, "They're locked! I'm givin' ya all the combo on Christmas!"

"Aah! So this is what you wanted to use the locks for!" Phineas said, a glimmer in his eye. "Looks like our inventions will always be put to good use, Ferb!"

Baljeet groaned again. "Oh no! I thought I might be able to get through the locking mechanisms until now!"

Buford huffed. "Why're you suddenly so curious?"

"I cannot help it! I just am!" They could all tell too; Baljeet was still looking at the present perplexedly, turning it in his hands and shaking it to his ear occasionally.

Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford chatted for a while as the bus routinely stopped every now and then for more people. They were the first on, so the bus ride was always long. Ferb listened to the three bicker and chat before looking back to Phineas again. He was looking out the window drowsily. _Probably tired and filled with thoughts at the same time_. Ferb didn't want to rush him to-

"Ey! Dinner Bell!" Buford said, snapping his fingers in Phin's face. "What's up? Ya usually have more than 2 lines by now."

Phineas looked around at everyone staring at him, waiting for his reply. Ferb looked a bit more understanding.

"Well," the red haired boy started, "I was wondering when we should bring this up, but I suppose now is as good a time as any..." He looked to Ferb, who nodded in agreement. Phineas sat up straighter, letting everyone know that this was something important.

"Last night," Phineas began in a quiet voice, which made everyone lean in slightly. "We got a transmission from Meap. From what we got from the data we received of his coordinates, he was _galaxies_ away. The transmission lasted only a few seconds, but from what Ferb and I could tell of it, Meap was attacked."

Isabella and Baljeet gasped, and Buford clenched the seat. Proper responses.

"But, why would he call you guys?" Isabella said. "_Not_ that you guys wouldn't be capable of helping, but couldn't he send for someone closer? Like the other Meaps?"

"That's what we were thinking," Phineas said. "There'd have to be a specific reason to call us. Not to mention that at the beginning of the transmission, Meap didn't even seem like he was in danger. Until he looked up, that is."

"And you could not see what had attacked him?" Baljeet said. Phineas and Ferb looked at each other, before Ferb started rummaging through his backpack.

Phineas explained while Ferb pulled rather distracting things out of his pack, including a toolbox, blueprints, miscellaneous wires, plates of food that had strangely gone untouched in the bag, and other random items uncommonly seen in a school backpack. "We were able to take a screenshot of the split second before the transmission ended."

Ferb pulled out the paper, and the two brother's trio of friends pulled their heads together to look at it.

They studied it silently for many moments before Isabella cleared her throat. "Um, Phineas, we can't tell what this is. It just looks like a bunch of wires."

"Oh! Here, let me show you." Isabella handed him the paper and he used his finger to trace an image. "You can see something that looks like a hand right here. But it's made from some sort of metallic material."

"A robot?" Baljeet guessed.

"Yup," Phineas said, "That's our best guess, at least. And it'd make sense for Meap to call us about it, because as far as we know, most alien life doesn't resemble humans. This one does, so it would be pretty odd for something like that to be so far away."

"That IS odd. Why would something way out in another galaxy resemble us?" Isabella mused, staring at the photo. "You don't think _humans_might have made it, do you?"

"Another question might be _'who was it made for_?'" Ferb stated.

As they all sat silently thinking over this, Phineas spotted the school in the distance. "Well, all we really know is that we were probably the only one's contacted, meaning no one knows what happened besides us. Ferb and I have already suped up a ship that can fly us. You guys in?"

Without missing a single beat, the three answered, "**Of course**!"

"…However," Baljeet added, "Traveling so far and back could take weeks, not including the time it would actually take to return. And I am pretty sure that none of our parents will be all right with us skipping school to go on a space flight for _who-knows-how-long_so that we can fight a monster space robot."

"Don't worry, we have a plan for that!" Phineas smiled, as if they weren't about to sneak away from the whole of the human race without anyone noticing otherwise.

At that point the bus was unloading its passengers, and they all gathered their backpacks. "Just be prepared for everything to start at 9:15!" Phineas continued, hopping off his seat first and walking down the isle. Ferb followed before Isabella. Baljeet and Buford came behind them.

"What will happen at 9:15?" Baljeet asked.

Phineas called back playfully, "At 9:15, all you need to know is to go with the flow!"

Baljeet huffed at the 'Plan." As they all hopped off the bus Buford walked to the side of him. "They don't have a plan," Bufe scoffed.

His frenemy sighed. "That is most likely. They _never_ seem to actually have a plan. Why is it that we put our trust in the two most _insane people _in the universe on a daily basis?"

"Because we'd be boring if we didn't!" Buford said. He scooped up some snow from the school lawn and stuffed it down the back of Baljeet's coat, making him scream loudly.

Buford ran toward the school laughing, Baljeet running after him. "_Buford!_" he yelled angrily. He managed to pelt his friend with a few more snowballs before they both managed to get inside, where the warmth immediately melted all of the snow, leaving their clothes to look as if they had taken a dip in a lake.

"We are definitely going to stop by our homes before we go," Baljeet grimaced. "I am _not_ wearing these on a space adventure for a month."


	3. Chapter 3

**TRAPPED Chapter 3**

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** HAHA, Did you think I wouldn't update again? YOU THOUGHT WRONG. I genuinely am pretty happy with my somewhat figured out storyline, not to mention I just got back into Phineas and Ferb after having a bit of a break from it, NOT TO MENTION that Winter Break just started for me. So. Here it is!

Originally I had thought to do a chapter with both subplots, but this one was so fun to write and got to be so long, I figured that Earth could wait a chapter. Besides, I still need to figure out a few things. Eesh.

Reviews are adored, thank you very much! And when I say review, I mean critique is favored as well, as long as it's polite and well-thought out. I'd like to know what I'm doing right AND what I'm doing wrong. Or if you just have some encouraging words those help too. I usually get hyped to write new chapters just thanks to someone saying "Wow I'm enjoying this!" or something. ^u^ And if you're planning on reviewing, please look at my authors note at the end of the chapter, AFTER you've read through the whole thing (spoilers!).

So thanks! And enjoy!

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If you were looking down on the scene there wouldn't be much to view. The room was cloaked with darkness, save the occasional quiet spark of bright electricity from nowhere in particular. He guessed it was from the walls he assumed existed nearby, though considering that they seemed to hold dangerous energy, the little alien didn't think it wise to start feeling around for a door. Waiting was the way to go.

Meap had only woken minutes before. His innards, particularly those similar to our human lungs, were sore and felt almost bruised as he sat up. His throat hurt as well. Everything ached, really, though he ignored it almost instantly. His few minutes spent in peace were followed by a focus on getting to know his surroundings.

Of course, there's not much to examine when it's all blackness and an occasional bolt of blue or red energy zapping out nearby.

Suddenly a voice shattered the perfect silence that he had barely realized was there. It was loud, mocking, and close.

"_BOO._"

He flinched. He felt like an idiot for flinching, because it was probably exactly his host would want. By it's cackling reaction, he was right.

"Awwww. Did I scare the little alien baby?" Meap immediately got the feeling that the owner of this voice was out to impress. To make a show of his superiority. Eugh.

"What a wuss." He ignored the insult. Somehow the voice was above him now. "I could barely believe that I had reeled in someone stupid enough to go for the simplest trap in the book."

A light flashed across Meap's line of vision. Sparks erupted from the crevices of darkness that surrounded him. In another moment it was all gone, but the blinding light had burned into his vision. Glowing eyes and a mouth that reminded him of pumpkin carvings by humans. He blinked rapidly and squeezed his eyes shut, determined to escape the gaze of his capturer.

Suddenly the sound of a thousand engines crescendoed into existence in the alien's little eardrums. His eyes flew open as light engulfed the room. Perfect, another kind of blind.

As his eyes adjusted, a tall figure came into his blurred vision. Meap processed every piece of information he could think of. Four black walls. No doors. Small room. Completely empty. Humanoid figure. Main language is English. Obviously from Earth, but not Human?

"Meap?" the squinting form said boldly, attempting to sound unfazed by his capturer's mystery act.

The figure laughed heartily. Loudly. Annoyingly. "HA. Is that really what your language sounds like? And I thought Martians were ridiculous sounding."

Meap could see the full form of what now appeared to be an artificial creation. A hideous one, he added mentally. It's limbs and body parts seemed to be a mesh of twirling, twisting slabs of metal, coils and bolts, formed together in a loose and sloppy form. It's head was NOT a pumpkin, as Meap had playfully imagined moments before. It was made from similar meshes of metal, with open carved crevices that seemed to be stuck in a devilish grinning face. It glowed a dark electric blue from inside. Meap was reminded of human art pieces made of trash. He didn't quite understand humanity at times.

The strangest part was that the figure seemed to be connected to the floor by his feet. Yet, as the machine stepped toward the comparatively itty bitty alien, the floor stepped with him. His feet seemed to pull long, bending metallic pieces out from beneath.

"I hope you don't mind that I switch on the universal translators so that I don't have to listen to your ugly language. And when I say that, I really mean that I do hope you mind, because I'm going to do it anyway and I want you to hate it." The AI stopped a few feet off from him. He stood with a hooked cane, which he leaned on with another hand in his "pocket" nonchalantly. It was obviously for show. "And in answer to your dumb question, it's curiosity. The trap is to just let your victim's curiosity play against them. And I lied, that's not the oldest trick in the book. I just like it."

Meap noted that this was the first thing the AI had ever stated liking.

He opened his mouth to speak, but it interrupted him quickly with an exasperated long-winded groan. "Let me guess. _'Where am I?' 'Who are you?' 'What happened?_'" He said these with a very high pitched voice. "Dull. Horribly stupidly dull questions. I wouldn't bother answering if it wasn't for the fact that I had planned to answer them anyway. I'll put it simply for your little _pea brain_ to grasp." Each word was said with contempt. Pure contempt. Meap made a quick mental list of every bad guy he had ever busted and which ones had connections which might want to murder him. He couldn't think of anyone in particular. This was new.

Suddenly their faces were incredibly close. If robots could spit, Meap was sure he would be flinching. It glared at him with glowing eyes that slowly turned from it's cool blue to a dark heated purple.

"_You_...are on a list."

Meap told himself not to dramatically gulp.

"A list of people whose fun little game will doom them. Because I am the stadium." With this, the floor beneath him moved upwards, creating a tall pillar on which 'The Stadium' stood on top. As if conducting an orchestra, he raised his arms and flicked his wrists. In response, the walls around Meap pushed inwards.

"Before we play the game, of course, we need all the players. And I mean _all_ of them. Particularly..." The pillar reformed itself into slabs of machinery, spiraling into a staircase. Banister's strutted up from the sides, and the artificial man slid down them quickly, stopping short of flying off the bottom, perfectly positioning himself into a sitting position on the end which Meap stood at the base of. From the first beam of the twisting banister, wires coiled up like vines, and a screen appeared with a picture that made Meap's heart skip a beat.

"_Flynn and Fletcher._ I've got a bone to pick with the brats. Quite a few bones, really. Hopefully theirs. Don't bother acting like you don't know them, either. I got the screen grab from _your_ ship. The one I totaled. I hope you loved that ship with everything in you, because you're never going to see it again." Meap stared at the picture with dread. It was the two boys and their sister posing with him in the ship the first time they had met.

"Fortunately you don't need to do much more than exist and look miserably adorable for me to get a hold of them. I happen to know that they hold quite a bit of _'moral fiber'_ in their freakish heads, so it's not like they won't enjoy playing hero." The artificial wad of infuriating jerkiness waved a hand over the screen and it disappeared. "Oh, and you have to survive. I am fond of games, and lucky for you, I do play relatively fair. There's always a way out, as long as you're clever enough to figure out how. Too bad for you of course. If you fell into my first trap so easily, I highly doubt you'll last long. I've gotten quite good." The pillar shot into the ground and the AI stuck out a wiry tongue at him as the lights flickered off. Meap got into a fighting stance, preparing for anything that may come at him. He heard machinery shake and rattle and move all around him, and suddenly when the lights flashed back on, spikes were coming from the two walls opposite him, drawing near, with the metal man nowhere to be seen.

A voice boomed from all around as Meap looked up, seeing the outline of a doorway above him. "As for the last couple boringly cliche questions, you can call me_ Tower_. And you are in my traps. Have fun. By which I mean don't." Tower cackled as Meap lept from one spike to the other, jumping for the handle above. As he climbed into the darkness, the spikes tore apart their parallel walls beneath him. "So welcome to the game," Tower whispered, "You _stupid albino toad._"

The speakers clicked off.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Apparently a lot of people were sincerely worried that I had killed Meap off! Haha, no worries, he is alive and sorta well. You know. _For now_. *Cackles* He doesn't get any real talking bits in here, but he will! I promise!

I wondered if people would catch on to who our villain was. I know that he sort of seems like an OC at first, because I sort of played with his appearance to have more fun with the story. He's BEING the tower, but at the same time he can freely move about it, which I thought was a fun neat concept that I could work with. It's also a bit difficult to write for him, because we only got one episode and his main characteristic that we saw of him was just that he's really rude. So. I tried to do something with that. XD

But c'mon, there's no way he was just gonna sit up there on the edges of the galaxy forever! He'd catch on to the fact that our two favorite inventors had outsmarted him eventually, I'd think. So. Yes. Tell me what you think of my writing of him! I'm interested! And please please please PLEASE review because I love them. Thank you!


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